Attention

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Presidents past and present lionized one of their own Thursday, putting politics aside as President George W. Bush dedicated the library that documents his place in history. President Barack Obama praised his predecessor's strength and resolve after Sept. 11, calling Bush a "good man" who faced the storm head on.

"My deepest conviction, the guiding principle of the administration, is that the United States of America must strive to expand the reach of freedom," Bush said. "I believe that freedom is a gift from God and the hope of every human heart."

Obama and Bush spoke along with the three other living former presidents in a rare reunion at the dedication of the George W. Bush Presidential Center. "To know President George W. Bush is to like him," Obama said.More

Hat tip to Boston Bob. He’s uncovered the true motive for the bombings. Tamerlan was pissed off because he was kicked off the welfare gravy train at the end of 2012 because his wench pushed them over the minimum income level by working 80 hours per week while he made bombs in the kitchen all day.

Obama and the liberals have learned their lesson. NEVER EVER kick anyone off the welfare rolls. They might blow something up. FREE STUFF FOR EVERYONE!!!!

Regular viewers of Fox News are used to seeing popular host Megyn Kelly on their televisions every afternoon, but on Thursday morning Kelly made a special appearance during the morning to break some surprising information: according to her sources, the FBI was “shocked” to see a magistrate “waltz into” the hospital room of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and read him his Miranda rights.

So why were they shocked? According to Kelly, the FBI was under the understanding that they would get much more time with Tsarnaev under the “public safety exemption” before he was read his rights. Adding to the shock: the sources told Kelly agents were getting crucial information after only 16 hours of questioning and were making valuable progress.

Russian authorities alerted the US government not once but ``multiple’’ times over their concerns about Tamerlan Tsarnaev -- including a second time nearly a year after he was first interviewed by FBI agents in Boston -- raising new questions about whether the FBI should have focused more attention on the suspected Boston Marathon bomber, according to US senators briefed on the probe Tuesday.

In a closed briefing on Tuesday, members of the Senate Intelligence Committee learned that Russia alerted the United States about Tsarnaev in ``multiple contacts’’ -- including ``at least once since October 2011,’’ said Richard Burr, a Republican of North Carolina, speaking with reporters afterward.

Senators said the briefing also revealed failures among federal agencies to share vital information about Tsarnaev, indicating, they said, that the US government still has not established a strong system to ``connect the dots’’ about would-be terrorists residing in America more than a decade after 9/11.

A corrections officers union is reacting to the indictment of 13 officers by the federal government for smuggling drugs and money and having sex with inmates at two prisons in Baltimore City.

Herbert Barry with the Maryland Correctional Law Enforcement Union tells WBAL he is not surprised by the indictment. Barry says some of the officers who work at Central Booking and the City Detention Center are relieved that action was finally taken because they had been complaining and were not seeing any action taken from management regarding their complaints.

Barry says know they understand management was cooperating with the investigation.More

Obama and his minions have done such an amazing job with mortgage loan modifications, imagine what they will do for your healthcare. He really should stick to doing what he does best – enrolling millions in the foodstamp program and SSDI. So here’s the skinny. You have continued to make your mortgage payment, month after month. You did this by working at a job and making sure you did not spend the mortgage money on a new HDTV or a vacation in Vegas.

While you were acting responsibly, Obama took money from your pocket and gave it to people who weren’t making their mortgage payments. He declared that 4 million people would stay in their homes and help the economy recover. Only 2 million modifications were started and only 900,000 are still in effect. And this isn’t even the epic fail. The redefault rates on the modified mortgages is 46%. Think about that for one minute. The government drones in the Treasury Department are dazed and confused that deadbeats would default after they had previously proven they were deadbeats. SHOCKING!!!!

But at least Obama got a couple million votes in the last election from the defaulting deadbeats who appreciated his generosity and taxpayer gullibility. I can’t wait for Obama’s next mortgage plan. It will be tough to top this result. Obamacare here we come.

A male Coquerel's sifaka, which is an endangered lemur, was recently born at the Maryland Zoo.

Zoo officials say Little Maximilian was born to the sifaka pair, Anastasia and Gratian on March 30th.

According to Carey Ricciardone, who is the mammal collection and conservation manager at the Zoo, the baby is healthy and is bonding with his parents. Newborn sifaka normally ride on their mother's belly for the first month, then move to riding on her back. More

ANNAPOLIS, MD – Midway through an eight-day economic development mission to Israel and Jordan, Governor Martin O’Malley met with Israeli President Shimon Peres at the president’s residence in Jerusalem. During the hour-long meeting, the discussion focused on Maryland and the State’s economy, entrepreneurship and the Middle East peace process. Later in the day, Governor O’Malley met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss U.S.-Israeli relations, as well as the economic ties between Israel and Maryland, which both have strong clusters in defense, cybersecurity, healthcare and biotechnology.

“Meeting with President Peres and Prime Minister Netanyahu was a tremendous honor,” said Governor O’Malley. “Their tireless dedication to peace for Israel and the entire region is an inspiration not just for the citizens here, but the world over. We look forward to strengthening the deep and historic relationship between Maryland and Israel and growing as partners in peace and prosperity.”

The first person to serve terms as both Prime Minister and President of Israel, President Peres began his career in 1947, serving in the Haganah, the predecessor to the Israel Defense Force. In 1953, at the age of 29, Peres was appointed Director General of the Defense Ministry and, over six years, established Israel’s electronic aircraft industries and the country’s nuclear program. Peres was elected to Israel’s legislature, the Knesset, at age 36 and, over the next 50 years, twice served as Prime Minister and once as Acting Prime Minister. In 1994, he won the Nobel Peace Prize with Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat.

Prime Minister Netanyahu, who has twice held the office of prime minister, worked as a business consultant to Israeli high-tech companies after leaving office in 1999 and before returning to politics in 2002. He is the first Israeli prime minister born in Israel after the establishment of the state. He is also an author and a leading voice on combating global terrorism. Governor O’Malley met Netanyahu during a previous trade mission to Israel in 2008.

Also today, Governor O’Malley met with Major General Amos Gilad, one of the top officials of Israel’s Ministry of Defense who is Director of Policy and Political-Military Affairs and Chairman of Security Relations with Regional and Strategic Partners. Governor O’Malley and General Gilad discussed the military, intelligence and security assets in Maryland and the major defense and foreign policy issues facing Israel.

Governor O’Malley also traveled to Ashdod to tour the headquarters of ELTA Systems Ltd., the world’s 4th-largest radar company. A subsidiary of Israeli Aerospace Industries Ltd., ELTA developed the radar used in the Iron Dome missile defense system that was instrumental in protecting Israeli towns and cities in the Gaza Strip during the conflict with Hamas in the fall. Governor O’Malley discussed with ELTA executives the company’s plans for expansion in the U.S. market and the recent success of the Iron Dome system. ELTA North America opened its U.S. headquarters in Howard County last summer with plans to hire 100 employees.

“We are honored and excited in Maryland to be the U.S. home of ELTA,” Governor O’Malley said. “Israel and Maryland share a belief in innovating, educating, and make the right choices and smart investments that lead to a safer world. We look forward to ELTA’s growth in Maryland and further collaborating with Israeli companies in life sciences, cyber and homeland security, and aerospace and defense.”

“It is an honor and privilege to have the opportunity to host the honorable Governor O’Malley at ELTA Systems Ltd.,” said Nissim Hadas, IAI Executive Vice President and ELTA President. “ELTA North America will serve as the first line of our U.S. customer support. With the technical and manufacturing expertise of our combat tested and operationally fielded systems, we plan to create jobs and grow our market share in the challenging and dynamic U.S. market. I look forward to seeing ELTA North America mature into a successful business that brings pride to the State of Maryland.”

A federal judge has a message for President Obama: Stop bypassing Congress on immigration.

Obama issued a directive in June 2012 halting the deportation of many young illegal aliens after Congress refused to pass the DREAM Act, which would have provided conditional permanent residency to young illegals.

A federal judge in Dallas is now threatening to reverse that directive.

U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor said Tuesday that he will likely rule in favor of a lawsuit seeking to overturn the new policy. He has asked both sides to file additional arguments by May 6.Read more

Snow Hill, MD – Worcester County residents are urged to participate in the countywide drug take back effort, Operation Medicine Drop, from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. on Saturday, April 27.

Operation Medicine Drop: Safe Communities-Healthy Waterways is a chance to safely dispose of unwanted, unused, or expired over-the-counter and prescription medications by dropping them off at the following designated sites throughout the county:

· Pocomoke Health Center, 400-A Walnut Street.

· Snow Hill Health Department, 6040 Public Landing Road.

· Berlin Police Department, 10 Williams Street.

· Food Lion, Rt. 611 in West Ocean City.

· Food Lion, Manklin Creek Rd. in Ocean Pines.

· Town of Ocean City Police Dept. and Ocean Pines Police Dept. offices both have permanent drop-off boxes for safe disposal of medications all year long.

Local law enforcement officers and volunteers will assist residents as they drop off their medicine at the designated drop off sites. There is no charge for this service and no questions asked.

The program prevents potentially harmful medications from entering our waterways and impacting aquatic life. In 2004, the USGS identified 100 different pharmaceuticals in surface water, including acetaminophen, caffeine, codeine, antibiotics and warfarin (a common blood thinner). They also found that an antibiotic, a drug used to treat bipolar disorder and nicotine had contaminated aquifers.

“Operation Medicine Drop events are an important part of our community outreach,” said Assateague COASTKEEPER Kathy Phillips. “By not flushing medications, or throwing them in the trash can, we are able to keep thousands of pounds of pharmaceuticals out of our waterways and our drinking water.”

Operation Medicine Drop also prevents medications from accidentally falling into the hands of small children or pets and from being abused by teens or adults. More than seven million Americans currently abuse prescription drugs, according to the 2009 Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration’s National Survey on Drug Use and Health.

“Safety is no accident,” said Worcester County Health Department Deputy Health Officer Dr. Andrea Mathias.“This is a chance for people to prevent prescriptions and over-the-counter medications from being misused or abused. It also keeps dangerous substances away from small children and pets who may accidentally ingest them."

Each day, approximately, 2,500 teens use prescription drugs to get high for the first time according to the Partnership for a Drug Free America. Studies show that a majority of abused prescription drugs are obtained from family and friends, including the home medicine cabinet.

Outraged parents say a New York middle school instructed young female students to ask one another for a lesbian kiss – and boys learned how to spot young sluts – in an anti-bullying presentation on gender identity and sexual orientation, according to Fox News’ Todd Starnes.

According to Starnes’ Report, the children attended a special April 11 health class taught by college students at Linden Avenue Middle School in Red Hook, N.Y. Parents say they were not notified of the presentation.

The students were introduced to terms such as “pansexual” and “genderqueer.”Read more

James Jonathan Aravanis of Princess Anne, criminal summons served 3-30-13 for theft less than $100.00. Aravanis was released on signature pending court actions.

Kim Lernora McDonald of Baltimore, arrested 4-6-13 for possession of suspected marijuana, and possession of drug paraphernalia. McDonald was later released on citation pending court actions.

David Lee Polk Jr. of Princess Anne, arrested 4-18-13 on a warrant for violation of a court ordered protective order. Polk was held without bond.

Gabriel Thomas Charles of Princess Anne, criminal summons served on 4-18-13 for possession with the intent to distribute cds, maintaining a common nuisance, and six counts of possession of drug paraphernalia. Charles was released on signature pending court actions.

Lashawn Andrews of Pittsville, arrested 4-18-13 on a warrant for failing to appear in court. Andrews was later held on a $250.00 bond.

Lorenzo Juan Christy of Princess Anne, criminal summons served on 4-18-13 for maintaining a common nuisance, and six counts of possession of drug paraphernalia. Christy was released on signature pending court actions.

Gregory Davis Sterling Sr. of Crisfield, arrested 4-21-13 for 1st. and 2nd degree assault, reckless endangerment, possession of a deadly weapon, and harassment. Sterling was held on a $50,000 bond. The arrest was the result of a call where deputies were called to Georges Lane, Crisfield regarding an intoxicated subject threating the complainant with a knife.

Stanley Jones of Salisbury, arrested 4-22-13 on three warrants regarding failing to appear in court. Jones was held on a $1,500 bond.

Dana Lynn Chamberlin of Salisbury, criminal summons served on 4-22-13 for theft less than $1,000. Chamberlin was released on signature pending court actions.

Lamont Quamar Lewis of Princess Anne, criminal summons served 4-22-13 for possession of cds, and possession of drug paraphernalia. Lewis was released on signature pending court actions.

Dawn Marie Davis of Pittsville, arrested 4-22-13 on a warrant for violation of probation. Davis was held on a $35,000 bond.

Cassey Dawn King of Princess Anne, arrested 4-23-13 on a warrant for violating a court ordered protective order. King was released on a unsecured $5,000 bond.

OCEAN CITY – Starting next November, the city’s bus service will be scaled back through the off-season months, eliminating the third shift that runs through the night during the week and returning to operating 24 hours a day on the weekends.

During budget wrap-up last Friday, city staff and the Mayor and City Council continued discussions over methods to increase revenue and cut costs to fill a budget shortfall in the FY14 budget.

A couple weeks ago, Public Works Director Hal Adkins presented two “extreme” options in decreasing the transit service. Both options left the service the same in the summer months, May-September, but if the bus service were to be completely eliminated in the off-season, October-April, it would reduce the subsidy by $1.67 million. The other option was to limit the bus service in the off-season to run only Friday-Sunday, which would result in a $1.42 million reduction.More

Tomorrow is your last day to visit the Poodle Show at the WCYCC. Vendors will remain open from 8 AM to 5 PM selling many one of a kind items as well as many items your not going to find in any local pet store.

In Virginia and Maryland, officials are counting on Congress to pass the online sales tax. Both states intend to use the new tax revenue to pay for roads, and if it fails on Capitol Hill, residents will be paying even more for gas.

The Senate on Wednesday advanced a bill to tax Internet purchases despite the objection of a bipartisan group of lawmakers who say the legislation will hurt the critical small-business sector.

Senators voted 75-22 to advance the Marketplace Fairness Act, which would allow states to collect sales taxes from Internet retailers.

Opponents, many of them from the five states that do not have a sales tax, said the legislation pits "brick and mortar" stores against "brick and click" Internet businesses. Supporters say expanding the sales tax to the Internet will level the playing field and discourage the practice of "showrooming," in which shoppers peruse retail shops for items they then buy online for less.More

The Salisbury Area Prayer Breakfast Committee cordially invites the community to take part in the 3rd Annual National Day of Prayer Breakfast with guest speaker Randy Singer on Thursday, May 2 at the Wicomico Youth & Civic Center.

This tradition of Christian fellowship and goodwill has flourished across the country for nearly 79 years as witness to the emphasis on spiritual values that we share in this great nation. The prayer breakfasts serves a meaningful purpose and richly rewards the spiritual growth of communities.

Guest speaker Randy Singer is an accomplished veteran trial lawyer, acclaimed author, teacher, and pastor. Last year, Singer was named a finalist (with John Grisham and Michael Connelly) for the inaugural Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction.

The National Day of Prayer Breakfast will be held in the Wicomico Youth and Civic Center’s Midway Room on Thursday, May 2. Doors will open at 6:45am and the program begins at 7:20am. Tickets are $20 per person or $160 for a table of 8. Tickets are available at the Country House and Salisbury Chamber of Commerce, or by calling 410-430-4189.

The 62nd Annual National Day of Prayer Observance will follow at 12:00noon at the City/County Office Building in downtown Salisbury. The National Day of Prayer Observance is a time of corporate prayer with area pastors and is free and open to the public. For information, contact Ted Evans at 410-430-4189.

Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) met Wednesday with top Israeli officials as part of an eight-day economic development trip to Israel and Jordan.

The governor’s itinerary included a meeting with Israeli President Shimon Peres in the morning and time later in the day with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Topics included economic ties between Israel and Maryland and the Middle East Peace process, according to O’Malley’s office.

In a statement, O’Malley, who is traveling with a delegation of Maryland business and education leaders, said he considered the meetings “a tremendous honor.” More

The Internet sales tax bill threatens small businesses by treating them the same as multibillion dollar retailers that have stores and warehouses around the country. eBay's message to lawmakers on sales taxes is simple. Protect small businesses that use the Internet to promote growth, jobs and competition that best serves consumers.

The Internet is a key part of 21st century retail for businesses of all sizes. Jon Gonzales is a great example. He has a growing computer accessories business in Virginia. Because he uses the Internet, his business sells across the country. But make no mistake, his small business is nothing like the giant national retailers that combine stores, distribution centers and Internet sites. Those businesses are located around the country so they are required to collect sales taxes in every state. Now there is a proposal to require small businesses operating out of only one state to do the same.

(Salisbury, MD) Last weekend, over 15,000 festival-goers celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Pork in the Park BBQ Festival presented by Gateway Subaru at WinterPlace Park in Salisbury, MD.

The festival welcomed 106 competitive barbeque teams from 12 states, Ontario and Australia who took part in the Kansas City Barbeque Society (KCBS) Competition. At the end of the two-day competition, 4:20Q of Maryland took home the title of Grand Champion and The BBQ Guru of Pennsylvania was named Reserve Champion. 4:20Q was also awarded the title of Maryland State Champion.

The weekend featured a full line-up of live entertainment headlined by The Marshall Tucker Band on Saturday night. The nationally recognized Southern rock band garnered a large crowd of enthusiastic fans, singing along with favorites including “Can’t You See” and “Heard It in a Love Song.”

On Sunday, Pork in the Park introduced the Mountaire Farms Eastern Shore Wing War. The three-part event kicked off with the People’s Choice Wing Competition where sixteen area restaurants went head-to-head in a bracket-style competition. After sampling and voting for their favorite, the People’s Choice went to Catering by Chef Stewart of Flannery’s. The Amateur Wing Eating Competition followed on the main stage, where Lauren Smith (representing Sub Runners) took home the trophy after consuming two pounds of wings in six minutes. The Wing War culminated with the Major League Eating sanctioned Professional Wing Eating Competition in which current World Champion Joey Chestnut, third-ranked Tim ‘Eater X’ Janus and fourth-ranked Sonya “The Black Widow” Thomas took the stage alongside other professional eaters to compete in a 12-minute wing eating competition. Thousands cheered as Chestnut was awarded first place after eating 208 wings. Thomas came in second with 159 wings, followed closely by Janus with 152 wings.

The festival also held the 3rd Annual Backyard BBQ Amateur Competition on Sunday, where 20 teams prepared their best barbeque chicken and ribs. KIRBBQ was awarded top honors, securing a spot in next year’s KCBS competition. The 3rd Annual Cornhole Tournament also took place on Sunday, where Carey’s Classics (Eddie Carey & Kevin Haydel) took home first place.

The big banks are buying up distressed real estate by the boat load, and renting or selling it back to the public for huge profits. And, in addition to making it even more difficult for economically-strapped Americans to become home owners, the banksters are increasing the likelihood of another Wall Street-fueled bubble that could crash our economy.

According to the Washington Post, institutional investors account for as much as 70 percent of sales in some markets, and their purchases are increasing home prices in those areas. Some investors are bidding on as many as 200 homes in a single day, crowding out individual buyers, re-inflating prices, and taking on a huge volume of inventory that can't be liquidized quickly if and when big banks get into financial trouble.

Dean Baker, of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, expressed his concern about the risk the banksters are taking on. He said, "This is frightening to me. At some point the music stops. The investors, if they get hurt, that is their problem...but invariably a lot of other people will get caught up in that." Because of the risky trading practices and sub-prime mortgage scandals of the big banks, the taxpayers were forced to spend 700 billion dollars bailing out the banksters. Now, they are putting our economy at risk again, and they're making huge profits off of the homes they foreclosed on. And, taxpayers could be left holding the bag, when the big banks get into trouble again. This practice must be stopped. Let's break up the big banks, and stop the banksters from cashing in on the very disaster they created.

Young guitarists have the opportunity to participate in Salisbury University’s fifth annual Guitar Festival and Competition Saturday-Sunday, April 27-28. With full registration, students may perform in master classes for nationally and internationally acclaimed guitarists, compete in performance and play in an ensemble during the festival. Saturday’s activities focus on classical guitar. Sunday, the festival’s focus shifts to all styles of guitar.

SALISBURY, MD---Salisbury University senior Anthony Zangara and his business partner Nicholas Neuman opened their first Quikshakes location in a Y in Abingdon, MD, in January.

Providing all-natural smoothies and shakes, and education about nutrients, the team topped $1,600 in sales on its first day and is on pace to hit $140,000 in sales in the first year. They already are looking to add two more locations: a Y in Ellicott City and a YMCA in Elkton.

Have you been letting extended family members and friends use your Netflix log-in? Netflix would rather you didn't. The company unveiled a new $12 Family Plan that lets you stream four movies to different devices at the same time. Under the standard $8-per-month subscription plan, you can watch only two video streams at a time.

While the new Family Plan is being offered as an option to help quell the number of Netflix freeloaders—about 10 million people, according to one analyst—Netflix doesn't think it will be especially successful. In its earning report, the company said it expects the plan will attract less than 1 percent of its subscribers.

Resume:Seaford, DE- Paul E. Herman is not wanted. This is a Homeless Sex Offender Public Notification. Herman is a medium risk Tier II sex offender who has registered as homeless in Seaford, DE. If you have information that Paul E. Herman is occupying a residence please contact 302-672-5306. Tips may also be submitted by utilizing the Delaware State Police Mobile Crime Tip Application available to download at: http://www.delaware.gov/apps/. Information may also be provided by calling Delaware Crime Stoppers at 1-800-TIP-3333, via the internet at www.tipsubmit.com, or by sending an anonymous tip by text to 274637 (CRIMES) using the keyword "DSP."

In the latest preview of prices for health coverage under the Affordable Care Act, Maryland’s dominant insurer says proposed premiums for new policies for individuals will rise by 25 percent on average next year.

That’s lower than what some had predicted. Just three weeks ago, the insurer, CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, had been looking at a proposed 50 percent increase. But the company revised that initial estimate, citing worries about affordability for consumers.

“Not only were we concerned about a potential hit to subscribers, but we were also concerned about price levels that were unattractive” to young customers seen as an important stabilizing force for the market, CareFirst CEO Chet Burrell said in an interview Wednesday.More

A new study by the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) reflects a 9-percent increase in motorcycle deaths in 2012 to about 5,000 fatalities for the year. That marks the 14th year out of 15 that deaths have risen.

The GHSA report looked at each state's fatality counts for the first nine months of 2012 compared to 2011 to project the full year. Previous year projections based on this methodology have mirrored the final numbers. Thirty-four states have increased, 16 states decreased, and the District of Columbia stayed the same.

So, why are motorcycle deaths going up? There are a number of factors.

An eight-year attempt to tighten statewide controls on stormwater and sediment runoff will go to a crucial public hearing Tuesday, with critics and supporters recommending changes and in some cases calling for a new delay and new compromises.

The Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control effort began after a series of destructive floods and storms in 2003 and 2004 prompted a task force study and call for reforms. Opposition throughout the years prompted rewrites of at least two public draft plans and repeated delays.

In their neverending quest to grab federal dollars, states are nowcompeting to sign up their citizens for federal food stamps. A piece in Wednesday’s Washington Post details the efforts of states ranging from Florida to Rhode Island to Alabama to sign people up for food stamps, since food stamp cash flows to local businesses via federal allotments. Florida has hired food stamp recruiters to sign people up for food stamp applications. Rhode Island apparently sponsors bingo games for elderly people, with the goal of signing them up for food stamps. Alabama advertises: “Be a patriot. Bring your food stamp money home.” According to the Post, “Three states in the Midwest throw food-stamp parties where new recipients sign up en masse.”

When people protest at being signed up for food stamps, the recruiters in Florida encourage them to get over their shame. The Post reports this exchange between Dillie Nerios, a food stamp recruiter, and an elderly Floridian:

NERIOS: “Sir, can I help?”

MAN: “I don’t want to be another person depending on the government.”

NERIOS: “How about being another person getting the help you deserve?”More

A legislative task force contemplating major changes to dog control in Delaware is proposing a new Office of Animal Welfare within the Division of Public Health, giving it a mission of inspecting conditions in animal shelters, kennels and pet stores, among other duties.

The Animal Welfare Task Force, chaired by Sen. Patricia Blevins, will submit its final report by April 30, following months of meetings and a public hearing. Its findings, in a draft report obtained by The News Journal, suggest the state will reassert some authority over dog control, a few years after delegating that task to county governments.

The diminishing returns of technology are insidious, and they are ever with us. By this I mean the slow erosion of the quality of life, despite the impression that technological wonders only make our lives better.

We've Become a Society of Self-Deluded Children

The most obvious example is what happened to the telephone over the past thirty years. We computerized every phone system in America to “improve communications.” The net effect is that after all that time and expense (billions of capital investment), it is now nearly impossible to get a live human being on the phone, whether you are calling a Fortune 500 corporation, a non-profit charity, or your best friend. Has that improved communication? What you get instead are robots that waste big chunks of your time forcing you to listen to complex call-routing menus – often ending in futility.

Companies and institutions assume that they benefit from the “efficiency” of not having to pay gangs of human receptionists. But they only succeed in annoying their customers and clients, who are treated as pests to be avoided. In effect, phone systems became firewalls, not communication enhancers.

Add to that the more recent phenomenon of cell phones and smart phones, which, for all their charms, 1) don’t work in all locations, 2) drop calls frequently, 3) have lousy sound quality, 4) feature time delays that make people talk over each other constantly, 5) erode real-time social relations with distracting apps and web features, and 6) possibly harm people’s brains by constantly rinsing them in microwaves.

A larger issue of technology’s effect on culture is the erosion of a shared sense of what is going on in the world based on reality. Increasingly and insidiously, the consensus about how the world operates is based on things that constitute unreal cultural constructions, especially TV shows, the daily Web-flow, computer games, and pseudo-informational memes based on gossip, make-believe, and wishes. The self-referential nature of this process, by the way, is what generates the cultural mood of irony, especially among young people, who are the most thoroughly and immersively hostage to a cognitive field of rapidly degenerating show-biz artifacts that become more ridiculous with each iteration, self-reference, or mutation – until daily life seems like little more than a continuous Gong Show of implausible made-up spectacle. You might end up thinking that Federal Reserve Chair Khloe Kardashian is releasing a new cologne which can be used as an alternative fuel one hundred times more powerful than gasoline and exported worldwide to reduce the trade deficit, save Social Security, and make America energy-independent.

This is a time in history when it’s hard to take anything seriously, including our fate.

There remains, however, an age-old relationship between reality and truth, and societies that allow them to become divorced run the risk of collapse. That happens to be exactly the predicament of the USA these days, and hence it is not such a marginal view to anticipate a bug-on-the-windshield moment for a society that has made self-delusion its baseline normal zeitgeist.

It’s especially remarkable that a nation with fairly deep traditions of free thought and speech, with durable institutions for purveying them (a free press), should sleepwalk into a captivity of pervasive, systematic, institutionalized lying and fraud. The people of Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia suffered under such regimes at gunpoint, with boots on their necks, but in the USA of Bush and now Obama, we have conveyed ourselves to very similar circumstances willingly, like little children skipping through the gates of Disney World, with gleeful disregard for the consequences.

ANNAPOLIS, MD - In response to the filings posted by the Maryland Insurance Administration, which show rates carriers have proposed for plans to be offered on the Maryland Health Connection, the state-based health insurance marketplace to be operated by the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange beginning October 1, 2013, Carolyn Quattrocki, Director of the Governor’s Office of Health Care Reform, issued the following statement:“The proposed rates made public today are just that – proposed. The Commissioner, under her expansive authority to review and modify rates, will now undertake a thorough and comprehensive scrutiny of the carriers’ requests. We must await the outcome of that process, during which the Commissioner and her staff will conduct actuarial analyses, test assumptions and projections, and work with carriers to arrive at appropriate rates. It is premature to reach any judgment or conclusion based on the rates as proposed. In the meantime, we are pleased that the filings confirm there will be robust participation in the Maryland Health Connection.”